Last month, I received The Blog Complainer’s Appreciation Award! In order to officially accept the award, one of the requirements is to complete a small challenge. In my post where I talked about this award, I chose to read two books for the Cosyathon readathon. While I didn’t complete these books within the readathon’s time-frame, I still chose to read them because a.) I wanted to read these books and b.) I promised my readers and followers that I would read these books. While thinking about the challenges from Cosyathon, I realized that my two choice books actually counted for four of the readathon’s challenges! As you can see in the picture, these books are The Christmas Child by Linda Goodnight and That Fatal Night: The Titanic Diary of Dorothy Wilton by Sarah Ellis.
These are the two books that had the honor of being read for the special small challenge! Screenshot taken by me, Sally Silverscreen.The first book I read was The Christmas Child. I was interested in reading this book because, to me, it sounded like a Hallmark movie I would probably watch. This book fulfilled the challenges of “read a Christmas themed book” and “read a book that’s set during Winter”. Not only does this story take place within the month of December, but it also takes place around Christmas-time. The Christmas Child is about a teacher and police officer who find a young child in their town. The young child, Davey, is non-verbal, with no known family to be found. Kade, the police officer, and Sophie, the teacher, have to solve the mystery of Davey and his history. I really loved this book! It felt like I was reading a Hallmark movie, particularly from Hallmark Movies & Mysteries or Hallmark Hall of Fame. While this story had its emotional moments, it was also sweet and heart-warming. The only flaw I could find within this book was how both Sophie and Kade’s point of view were included in each chapter, making these chapters feel a little bit too long. Other than that, I absolutely enjoyed reading this story! I hope that Hallmark considers adapting The Christmas Child into a movie, either for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries or Hallmark Hall of Fame. This is the type of story that I could definitely see being shared throughout Hallmark’s Christmas line-ups, which would definitely make me a very happy reader and movie blogger.
The second book I read was That Fatal Night: The Titanic Diary of Dorothy Wilton. This story counted for the challenges of “read a book with a cold cover” and “read a book about getting stranded”. According to history, the Titanic sank in a cold environment. As you see on the cover, the Titanic’s demise is depicted in the background. Also, according to history, the passengers were stranded in the middle of the ocean when the Titanic sank. This book is a historical fiction story about a young girl who survives the Titanic tragedy. After getting expelled from school, Dorothy, the book’s protagonist, is given a journal so she can express her feelings about her traumatic situation. This is another book that I really enjoyed! What made this book so good was the author’s ability to create a fictional character that feels and sounds like a real person. While there are moments where Dorothy seems like a typical child, there were also moments where she sounded wise beyond her years. Another good thing I liked about the book was how the author created a balance between moments of sadness and joy. For me, this story only had one flaw, which was the editing. There were times when I felt that commas were missing from some of the sentences. Also, I found sentences in some parts of the book that were either too short or too long. However, because this book is written in a journal format, I’m not sure if this was a legitimate editing error or if it was supposed to reflect the idea of a child’s style of writing. I feel that Hallmark should adapt this story into a Hallmark Hall of Fame production. A film adaptation of this book would be very different from the other Hallmark Hall of Fame films that were released in recent years because a.) it’s been at least six years since a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie has featured a child or young person as the protagonist and b.) there has been few movies from Hallmark Hall of Fame that feature children or young people dealing with or overcoming traumatic situations. Also, when I think about the portrayal of the Titanic in film, I realize that not only have the main point of views never been from a child, but also barely explores the trauma that can be experienced from surviving such a horrific event.
In my review of Return from Witch Mountain, I mentioned that I would publish my 45 follower thank you review very soon. Because I, recently, watched a film that was released in 1973, now is the time for me to talk about that film. For this post, I have chosen The Paper Chase. Before seeing this movie, the only film about law school I had ever seen was Legally Blonde. So, I was interested in seeing this particular concept from a different perspective. I am aware that this movie was based on a pre-existing novel. However, because I have never read this book, I’m only reviewing The Paper Chase as a film, not a book-to-film adaptation. How good or bad is the ninth film for this specific review series? Check out my review of The Paper Chase to find out!
The acting: All of the character portrayals in this movie were very good! Everyone appeared so believable, it seemed like I was watching real-life people dealing with real-life situations. Willis Bell, to me, was a very unlikable character. However, Craig Richard Nelson did a good job portraying that sense of unlikability which came across very effectively on-screen. Before watching The Paper Chase, I had seen Lindsay Wagner’s performances in Eat, Play, Love and Mingle All the Way. But, this was my first time watching Lindsay’s performance in a project not affiliated with Hallmark. I think she did a really good job portraying Susan Fields in this movie, giving an acting performance that appeared very natural and versatile.
The cinematography: While watching The Paper Chase, I noticed some really creative cinematography. One example of this was the reflection of the textbook in James T. Hart’s glasses. This stressed the importance of academics and how far James was willing to go to succeed. Another really cool use of cinematography in The Paper Chase was whenever someone was walking on the glass library floor. The way the camera focused on the floor, as if looking upward, was really interesting. Seeing the unique ways that cinematography was used in this film was such a pleasant surprise!
The music: Even though music was only found at certain moments in the film, I really enjoyed the music that was featured within the movie. To me, the best song was during the scene where James and Susan are on the frozen pond. This instrumental music was such a pretty score that beautifully complemented the wintery beauty in that scene. I was surprised when I found out John Williams created the music for The Paper Chase because I’ve been used to hearing his iconic scores from well-known blockbuster films. The music that was incorporated into this film was a great thing to find!
A slow pace: The pace in The Paper Chase was slow. It was slow enough to the point of making the movie feel drawn out and longer than it might have been intended.
Lack of plot: Before watching The Paper Chase, I had expected the movie to have a substantial plot, with a conflict, climax, and some rising action. Unfortunately, the movie did not have any of those things. The Paper Chase is a story that’s very “slice of life”, showing a year in the life of the characters. While this story wasn’t bad, I, personally, was expecting more from the plot.
Too dialogue heavy: The Paper Chase is very dialogue heavy. The majority of the film consists of the characters talking, either to or at each other. Dialogue is a necessary component to any film. However, there has to be more to a movie than simply dialogue.
Law school textbooks image created by Peter Skadberg at freeimages.com. “FreeImages.com/Peter Skadberg.”
My overall impression:
Overall, I thought The Paper Chase was ok. There were things within the film that I liked, but I was expecting more from the movie. If given the choice, I would pick Legally Blonde over The Paper Chase because, in my opinion, Legally Blonde has a stronger plot. But, I’m glad I chose The Paper Chase for my 45 follower thank you review, as I might not have watched it if it weren’t for my 45 followers! A very special thanks to all of my readers and followers, as you are the reason why these special movie reviews are even possible! When I started my blog back in February, I never imagined I would receive almost 50 followers by the end of the year. Seeing 18 Cinema Lane prosper really does show how important and special movie blogs are in the world of blogging.
Overall score: 6 out of 10
Which movie from my blog follower thank you series is your favorite? Are you looking forward to which movie I’ll review for my 50 follower thank you post? Let me know in the comment section!
Queen of the Damned poster created by Warner Bros. Pictures. Image found at https://www.warnerbros.com/queen-damned
In your introduction for this double feature, you mentioned that both Queen of the Damned and The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire were released in 2002. Can you think of anything from around that time period that could have influenced the creation of this film?
I think there are three things that influenced the creation of Queen of the Damned. The first is the character of Malcolm from Jurassic Park. As I mentioned in my Jurassic Park review, Malcolm is a rock-star-esque mathematician. However, Malcolm appeared to be a likable character. In Queen of the Damned, Lestat was a rock-star-esque vampire. Despite these characteristics, Lestat, for the most part, comes across as a likable character. The second thing is the 1998 film, Blade. I’ve never seen this movie, but I know that it’s a darker and more violent comic book film that, to a certain extent, discusses the subject of vampires. Because this film was successful enough to receive a sequel (that was, ironically, released exactly a month after Queen of the Damned), I’m speculating that Blade inspired the creative team behind Queen of the Damned to make their movie darker and more violent than their predecessor, Interview with the Vampire. The third and final thing is, interestingly, Interview with the Vampire. I’ve never seen this film either, but based on this film’s trailer, it appears to be a gothic film in the old-school sense. Queen of the Damned focuses on the new-school/modern gothic style, which is very different from the first film. Most movie series try to do something different with each new film, so I think this film’s approach was rather creative.
2. Were you able to follow along with the story and understand what was going on in the film despite not having read the source material?
For the most part, yes. I did some research about this film before I saw it, so I was aware of certain aspects of the film that some casual movie-viewers might not understand. For instance, in the film’s climax, there are various characters that are introduced. One of these characters is Pandora. If I didn’t know that she is a character from a spin-off book series that Anne Rice wrote, I would have no idea who Pandora was in this film.
3. Were your pre-movie questions answered?
Well, two out of my three pre-movie questions were answered. The only question that wasn’t answered was how Lestat survived being burned in the previous film. Honestly, I wasn’t as bothered by this as I thought I would be. Because this movie focused more on Lestat’s present and origin story, re-capping the first film would have felt like Queen of the Damned had too much content.
As for the two questions that did get answered, the reason why Lestat appeared like he was trying to pursue a romantic relationship with Akasha is because, in the movie, Akasha kidnapped Lestat and forced him to in be in relationship with her. Speaking of Akasha, she did reveal that the reason why she loved Lestat was because he reminded her of her deceased husband. As for Jesse, it appeared, in the movie, like she truly loved Lestat. Because she’s a vampire scholar, Jesse wasn’t as fazed by the vampire aspects of Lestat’s world. Also, because her aunt is a vampire, it seemed like Jesse truly appreciated the subject of vampires and the world surrounding them.
4. Were you right or wrong in your pre-movie prediction?
I guess I was kind of right in my pre-movie prediction {shrugs with a confused look on my face}. While Lestat was forced into a relationship with Akasha and Jesse wasn’t aware of this until the climax of the film, there is a moment during the film’s climax where Lestat pretends to drink more of Akasha’s blood then he should have. This allowed the other vampires present in that scene to defeat Akasha.
5. In this double feature’s introduction, when you talked about your reason for choosing to review Queen of the Damned, you said that the movie clips featured in the MsMojo video, ‘Top 10 Movies Based on Books That Need a Do-Over’, appeared bonkers to you. Was this movie bonkers or do you think these movie clips were taken out of context?
I definitely think these movie clips were taken out of context. To me, Queen of the Damned was not as bonkers as the clips within this video made it seem. The only thing I found bonkers in this movie was Lestat and Akasha’s “relationship” because of how problematic it was.
6. In a post from The Blog Complainer titled “How To Make A Good Movie Sequel”, there were several steps listed as if the article were a how-to for making sequels that are good. When a sequel successfully followed these steps, it means they passed the “Good Movie Sequel School for Dummies”. Because Queen of the Damned is a sequel, do you think it passed this school?
Well, yes and no. On the one hand, Queen of the Damned is based on two books from The Vampire Chronicles series. On the other hand, some stories were explored more than others because of this choice. Also, there were no references to Interview with the Vampire besides Lestat being a protagonist in the sequel. Lestat also had different characteristics than he did in the first movie, such as being less self-centered. However, the creative team behind this movie tried to do something different from the first movie. Lestat’s backstory was further explored and there were new characters that were introduced. If Queen of the Damned were enrolled in the “Good Movie Sequel School for Dummies”, it would probably receive a grade of somewhere between a B to C+.
7. Did you acquire any new thoughts and/or questions while watching this film?
Yes, lots! Because this post is already long, I will only list a few of these questions and thoughts.
What is Lestat’s net worth?
Why is there a small amount of security at Lestat’s concert? Since his band was aware of Lestat encouraging other vampires to show up at his concert to try and hurt him, wouldn’t they want to have more security at the concert?
Why would Jesse and Lestat return Lestat’s journal to David? It’s Lestat’s journal, so why wouldn’t he want to keep it?
How did Akasha know about Marius and Lestat’s conversation about Lestat needing a companion? Shortly after she kidnaps Lestat, Akasha tells him that she wants to grant his wish of a companion. However, Akasha was not a part of that conversation nor did anyone tell her about that conversation.
As I’ve already mentioned, I think that Lestat and Akasha’s “relationship” was problematic. The reason why I put the word relationship in quotations is because Lestat and Akasha were not together for a long period of time and their relationship didn’t develop over a significant amount of time. The way I would describe this “relationship” is with an analogy: the “relationship” is a car and Akasha is driving it. All Lestat is able to do sit in the passenger seat and take orders from Akasha. Honestly, I think this “relationship” is one of the most problematic relationships I’ve ever seen in a movie.
I really liked the sets and scenery in this film! For the most part, it made the environments in the movie feel inviting and appealing. I also thought the acting was really good! Everyone portrayed their characters so well and all of the performances were memorable. Something that I didn’t like in this film was most of the music. While I liked the violin music and the music that played during Akasha’s demise, I was not a fan of the goth rock music. When Lestat sang at his concert, he sounded unnecessarily angry. I would rather hear him play the violin than sing.
8. In Queen of the Damned, did anything stand out to you, whether for better or worse?
I liked the techniques in story-telling that were used in Queen of the Damned. There were several times when voice-overs from Jesse and Lestat were included to show the film’s story from their specific point-of-view. I think these voice-overs added depth to the story that we wouldn’t have gotten if they weren’t there. Most movies have one main plot and a few subplots. Queen of the Damned was told through several subplots that were all connected to Lestat in some way. I thought this was a very interesting approach to cinematic storytelling that I haven’t really seen before.
To me, the biggest flaw of Queen of the Damned is the run-time. This movie combines elements from two novels into one movie. However, the movie itself is one hour and forty-one minutes. Since the creative team knew they were going to incorporate so many story elements into their film, I think this movie either should have been a two-part over-arcing story (like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) or the run-time should have been longer. Because of this, some plots were explored more than others. For example, Lestat’s relationship with Akasha and Jesse seemed to move at a very quick pace, not giving these relationships enough time to develop and grow. I believe that any of my aforementioned solutions could have solved this issue.
9. According to the BMeTric charts in the Queen of the Damned Preview from Bad Movie Twins, it appears that interest in this film is rising. Why do you think that is?
Well, I think there’s two reasons for that. The first is negative reviews that the film has received. After hearing these reviews and seeing the 17% it has on Rotten Tomatoes, some people might choose to watch this movie out of curiosity, like I did. The second reason is Aaliyah’s involvement in the film. Some people might choose to watch this film as a way to respect her memory. Others may choose to watch this film because they want to learn more about who she was as a person and entertainer.
10. After watching Queen of the Damned, what is the one thing you can take away from this movie viewing experience?
While I think Queen of the Damned could have been a stronger film, I don’t think it’s as bad as some people have made it out to be. To me, this film is decent and I do think it has its merits. After watching this film, I started to notice a very sad pattern. I’ve only seen six vampire movies in my life, including Queen of the Damned. Out of those six, most of them feature at least one problematic relationship that is meant to be romantic. I can’t say if this is a norm in vampires movies or if this is just a pattern in the vampire movies I’ve seen. However, I was happy to see Lestat and Jesse pursue a romantic relationship with each other because, to me, they seemed like they truly loved and cared about each other. Their relationship also appeared to be a healthy one, where Lestat and Jesse loved one another for who they were and appreciated each other’s worlds.
After you read the title for this post, you probably wondered what these three people have in common, besides the fact they are all well-known human beings. Here’s the answer: Vin, Sebastian, and Judy are the subjects of recent movie news stories! Since it seems like not a lot of attention has been given to these stories, I decided to take the time to talk about them. As I usually do with these Word on the Street posts, I’ll not only report on each story, but I’ll also share my thoughts about them. So, let’s start talking about these stories!
While on the website, Superhero News, I came across a movie news story about Vin Diesel being cast as the lead in Valiant Comics’ first movie, Bloodshot. Reading the rest of the story on comicbook.com, Vin explained why he chose to join the cinematic project. As I read this article, Vin’s reason brought some interest to the film’s story. Within this same article, Dinesh Shamdasani, one of the producers of the film, shared some insight about Bloodshot. One thing Dinesh said that stood out to me was the following:
“The reason Bloodshot’s been so popular and so successful is that he isn’t an extraordinary human being who becomes a superhero. He’s an ordinary guy that through extraordinary situations, becomes this larger than life character”
— Dinesh Shamdasani
Dinesh brings up a really good point. After reading Dinesh’s statement, I started thinking about all of the superheroes that have been featured in the MCU so far. The only characters I could think of that fit Dinesh’s description of Bloodshot are Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Sam Wilson/Falcon, and Peter Quill/Star Lord. Because I’m not familiar with this story, I looked up the first Bloodshot book on Goodreads. Based on some of the reviews that I read, Bloodshot sounds like a combination of the Winter Soldier story from Marvel and the Jason Bourne series. When it comes to cinema, I enjoyed Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the majority of the Jason Bourne films, so the story of Bloodshot does sounds interesting. However, the one thing that does concern me is how much violence this film could contain. When I read some of the reviews for the first Bloodshot book, I discovered that the story contains a certain amount of violence and gore. According to this article, Bloodshot is scheduled to premiere in early 2020, so it’s likely that this movie hasn’t gone into production yet.
Why wouldn’t I post a picture of a Vin Diesel Funko POP! figure to this post? Screenshot taken by me, Sally Silverscreen.Yesterday, Collider reported that Sebastian Stan has joined the cast of Drake Doremus’ upcoming film, which currently does not have a title. The film will also star Jamie Dornan and Shailene Woodley. Based on the film’s synopsis within this article, the story sounds like something I would find on Hallmark. In most movies on Hallmark, the story revolves around a woman who not only has a career, but also has to choose between two potential boyfriends. Because it sounds like this movie is in the pre-production stages, not much is known about the film, other than what Collider has shared.
Speaking of Collider, in a recent episode of Collider Movie Talk, it was announced that Judy Blume’s novel, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret will receive a movie adaptation. According to Mark Ellis, host of Collider Movie Talk, Gracie Films will be the production company behind this movie. Also, Kelly Fremon Craig (director of The Edge of Seventeen) will write and direct this movie, with James L. Brooks also attached to this project. As of October 2018, the film is not yet partnered with a distribution company. I’ve never read this book, but I have definitely heard of it over the years. Because I’m unfamiliar with this story, I had to look up the synopsis on Goodreads. It seems like the creative team behind this movie have enough literary material to work with in order for this movie to be as memorable as the book has been for all these years. The panel in this Collider Movie Talk video also contemplated on whether the film would take place in the ‘70s or if the story would be modernized. Since I haven’t read this book, I’m not sure which of these two choices would work better for the movie.
If you want to watch the video I referenced in this post, you can either visit the Collider Videos Youtube channel or type in “Guardians of the Galaxy 3 Working Title Is Hot Christmas – Movie Talk” into Youtube’s search bar.
If you want to read the synopsis for the first Bloodshot book or Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, type in “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret” or “Bloodshot, Volume 1: Setting the World on Fire” into Goodreads’ search bar (just to let you know, some of the reviews for the first Bloodshot book do contain language)
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